The Colorado massacre has stimulated calls for
restrictions
on gun ownership.

If thy eye offends thee, pluck it out!

Pregnancy among unmarried females causes enormous harm
to
society, costs huge amounts of public funds for social security, and
deprives
the victim children of a parent. So let us apply that selfsame
straightforward
logic to prevention of pregnancy among unmarried females.We could reduce pregnancy by fitting chastity belts
to all unmarried females.

We could also require unmarried females be
accompanied
by a chaperone outside the home.

Do not laugh. Those options were
attempted.
The very existence of the concepts "chaperone" and "chastity belt" are
the proof.

Is there a lesson here for those politically
correct
social engineers who desire to restrict gun ownership.
I am fairly sure that they would not think so. Prejudiced people
are blind to any faults that others see in their own straightforward
solutions.
Consider the lessons of history...

The problem with direct solutions lies in the
detail.
Apart from the misery invariably caused to both the victims and the
supposed
beneficiaries, the application is never simple. The patches
required
to make the solution workable increase proportionally to the harshness
of application & the length of time that the solution is applied.

Taken to extremes we must
(block/steal/prohibit/banish/confiscate)
everyone's hands and feet and brains.

The Colorado massacre is a
symptom
of a deep seated social illness.

When there is sickness there is no point treating
the
symptoms.

The cause of the disease must be treated.

The social illness that caused Columbine is
disempowerment.

People become angry and strike out when they are
disempowered.

When guns are restricted, those who have most power
in
our society gain more power. Those who have least power lose from
what little they have. Any restrictions on guns disempowers the
poor
& the young.

Restricting guns exacerbates the social illness.

GST

The independent Senator Harradine from Tasmania
is
behaving in a way that is an example to all parliamentarians.
While the Democrats seek to have uncooked food excluded from the GST,
while
the Coalition attempts to steamroller their legislation through, while
Labour stonewalls, Senator Harradine presses onwards, requiring that
the
Coalition prove it's assurances that "no Australian will be worse off".

It does seem that he has uncovered at least two
groups
that will be worse off. The most glaring example is self
funded
retirees. Of what use is an offsetting taxation reduction
to
a person who has prepaid income tax? Pensioners are
also
treated inequitably, the compensation offered should be tied to the
original
(unfiddled) Consumer Price Index. Otherwise their income will be
eroded by inflation.

Then again, censorship is negative.

The author contributes to an
undeducted
superannuation scheme.

INDONESIA

President Habibe has promised peace in the conquered
colony
of Timor (population ~ 800,000). Our government should take
his assurances at face value, and show more concern for the
structure
of the upcoming Indonesian elections which will determine the stability
and happiness of the Indonesian people for decades to come.

Last year the Indonesian people ran amok and deposed
the
nepotistic President Suharto in favor of Vice President Habibe.
President
Habibe has promised to hold more democratic elections in June 1999.

For too long has this nation of 210 million people
suffered
unrepresentative & paternalistic government. It is up
to
Australians to help the people of Indonesia obtain a fair and
democratic
election.

A fair and democratic government in Jakarta is
more
likely to offer the Timorese people a fair plebiscite.

Sixty years earlier on 20 April 1939 Adolf Hitler
celebrated his fiftieth birthday with "the most impressive military
parade
ever seen in Germany".

On 28 April 1939 Hitler denounced the negotiations
for
a resolution of Danzig's status, and demanded that Poland allow the
ethnically German city to hold a plebiscite to join with Germany.
World War II started about four months later on 31 August 1939 when
Poland
(encouraged by the UK) refused the Germans in Danzig permission to have
a plebiscite to join with Germany, and refused German access by road
and
rail to East Prussia and Danzig.

There are calls for NATO to use troops to invade
Serbia.
Last week NATO continued to bomb Serbia for
peace,
to
enforce the right of ethnic Albanian Kosovans to set up an independent
state.

To date NATO claims a score of about six bridges, a
train
and a column of tractors. Last week NATO tried to get Slobbodan
by
bombing the Serbian equivalent of the "White House" but apparently he
wasn't
home. Then NATO bombed the TV network studios while Slobbodan was
giving a live interview, but unfortunately they missed him again,
all they got was a score of technicians. Apparently they didn't
kill
enough technicians because a few hours later Serbian national TV was
back
on line.

NATO describes all fatalities among Kosovans caused
by
the Serb army are "refugees". If this is so, what has happened to
the 80,000 strong KLA? Is there any truth to the story that
NATO
is bombing the Serbian army in Kosovo at the behest of KLA
spotters?
Is a captured KLA spotter the reason that NATO came to bomb two widely
separated refugee columns within the hour of one day of last week?

NATO insists that Serbia is getting desperate
because
the bombing is hurting. Serbia has admitted that the bombing is
hurting.
Serbia reported that NATO has destroyed about 20 schools, the
philosophy
department at Belgrade university, a few monasteries and about 500
people.
NATO's press agent says words to the effect that: These
things
happen. They are better off than the Kosovans in refugee camps.

To me it looks as if NATO is getting desperate.
By now NATO must have deleted everything that could remotely be
described
as political or military infrastructure in Serbia. Soon NATO will
have to start bombing things like the municipal water pumping &
purification
plants and the municipal town halls. Then what? City blocks
with people inside? And then I suppose NATO's spin doctors will
say:
They
are better off than the Kosovans in cemeteries.

NATO has got a problem. The longer that the
war
goes on, the more time that everyone will have to find out just how
it all started. Wasn't it Winston Churchill who said of
Goebbels
"ministry of information":

You can fool some of the people some
of
the time;You can't fool all of the people all of the
time;